


Epistolary

by Davechicken



Series: Kylux - Fluff & Angst [198]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-04-03
Packaged: 2018-10-14 14:53:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10538751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Davechicken/pseuds/Davechicken
Summary: Hux receives a... letter.





	

No one letters anything by hand these days. No one. Everything is digitised, because it’s just… quicker. More convenient. More legible. More efficient. You can forward on a message, or edit it, or quote sections. You can send it to multiple people across the galaxy, simultaneously. _No one_ writes by hand. Even ‘signatures’ are code-cylinder checks. It’s just how things are _done_.

Which is why Hux is utterly baffled to find the small envelope pushed under his door. It’s creamy, crisp, and addressed with only his surname.

He opens it, to find a short letter, unsigned, undated. Hux knows enough about ancient traditional letter writing to know that it isn’t considered good etiquette to do that, but it is likely the point. Not - not because it’s an insult, but because it’s _anonymous_.

Any electronic comm would be traceable. This - by nature of its physicality - is not.

Or… it is, but he’d have to work for it. Look at holofootage to see who had come close to his room and slipped it under the door. Analyse the handwriting through a lab. Look into who had requisitioned flimsi and ink. Lots of ways, but that would almost be… cheating.

He looks at the fine, even hand and wonders at it. The letters are lightly swirled in cursive connections, but clear enough to be legible at all times. Almost identical in height and slant, but with enough variance to not be printed out. The letters don’t extend too far above or below the invisible (yet perfect) lines, and there’s only a few places where the ink has bled a letter fatter, which he imagines must have been authorial hesitation. 

Hux can’t work out the gender of the writer, either. There’s nothing overly florid about it, none of the cutesy tells that normally indicate a feminine hand. He frowns, and reads it again.

The letter is short, but… sweet. Extolling his virtues, and expressing frustrated longing and admiration. The tone isn’t too affected, and Hux isn’t _entirely_ sure it’s sincere, but it definitely doesn’t read insincere. The flattery isn’t unrealistic, and the fact of his rank and position keeping him from the potential suitor is entirely logical.

He has… an admirer. Hux stuffs the letter under his socks, deep in the drawer, and tries not to think about it.

***

It’s a few weeks before the next letter arrives, and this one is similar to the first. The writing is a little thinner and more angular, the circles lightly smushed into fat olives, and the slant more pronounced. It’s still the same handwriting, and he assumes it’s just a bit more rushed today.

Again, the praise. The yearning. The admiration. 

Hux is terrified someone is laughing at him, hoarding these things. Reading, and re-reading them. Holding them close, until he worries the oil on his hands will bleach and stain the flimsi. 

It has to be a joke.

***

Letter three, and Hux wants to write back. He wants to engage in some form of correspondence, but he can’t go around leaving notes in front of his door, can he? 

There’s only one thing for it: he’s going to have to… cheat.

It’s not in the spirit of their game, but he can’t leave a puzzle unsolved, and he can’t let the anonymous hand have the last word. He needs to engage in _dialogue_ , or he’ll forever wonder _what if_.

Which is why he sets up a tiny, motion-activated device in the top left corner of his door, ready to capture footage of the epistolary stranger, and ready to arm Hux with any ammunition he needs.

What he doesn’t expect, however, is… well. Kylo? Kylo hates him, right? He’s always sniping at him? There’s no way he thinks these flattering things…

Hux leaps to his feet, opening the door, and stares at the startled Knight.

“Ren!”  


“…you didn’t see any–”  


“Don’t even _think_ about wiping my mind. I’ll have your reply to you tomorrow.”  


Kylo hesitates, his weight wobbling, and then he nods (sharply) and walks off (faster).

Hux doesn’t have pen and ink, but by the stars is he going to find some, and soon.


End file.
